It's not you, it's the dishes

The World’s Best Wife

My friend Jessie Knadler is really the best wife in the world. Her memoir, Rurally Screwed, just came out, and I highly recommend it. You might learn to be a great wife, too. She’s married to a guy named Jake. Jake loves trucks, horses, dogs, tools, and his family. He just came back from a year in Afghanistan, during which time Jessie was a single mom to baby June and a flock of chickens, wrote a book, and managed to not totally lose her shit. Her latest blog post reminds me again of how much I admire Jessie’s attitude toward love and marriage. She doesn’t keep score and she doesn’t whine (at least not in public), and she can always find her way to compromise. The latest example: She’d love nothing more than to take an exotic vacation with her husband; instead, he’s taking her to exotic Kentucky:

I need a vacation. I need a vacation with my husband in a big way. I spent a good part of the past year fantasizing about where to go upon his return. Somewhere foreign and exotic. Croatia. Argentina? Estonia! Jake had other plans. He planned a trip for us. Guess where we’re going?

Still, I can’t complain. I’m thrilled to be able to “jet off” with Jake at all. For a man just home from Afghanistan, maybe a drive across the Blue Grass State, where we can pull into any Sheetz we please and order nachos by touch screen, is just the thing this tired soldier needs.